Getting Started with Astro Art Processing Software
By Janet Cuttler
Username Astro Gran
Difficulty - 2 / 5
Basic processing of my Lagoon nebulae images in Astroart4.
These images are 120 seconds
in duration and taken with the
Starlight Express MX5-C CCD camera at F3.3.
1. In Astroart 4, go to “Tools” then scroll down and select
“Preprocessing”. This will open the
preprocessing window.
2. If you have a one shot camera, first you will need to set the colour synthesis.
What I suggest
is to open an image, then colour synthesize
your image use the settings that work best.
Once
you are satisfied with your results, click “OK” and these
settings will remain and will be
automatically applied to all your
images you subsequently run through preprocessing.
3. Click on “Files” and then locate the folder where all your images are stored. Simply drag all
your files into the appropriate boxes. See below:
4.
5. Click on “Options” I have chosen the below options:
6.
7. There are also a variety of options under the “extra” tab.
These options will automatically be
applied when selected…Logarithmic Scaling for instance. I prefer to apply any extra scaling
and enhancing filters after
I have seen my final stacked image.
8. Once you are satisfied with the entire settings, click “OK” and the process will begin.
You
will then have a final image on the screen, in my case it was NoName30.
See Below:9.
10. I have opted to use the Histogram to enhance my final image. The histogram icon is situated
below the “Tools” menu. I only
used the “Log”
arrow which brought out more nebulae and
detail.
See Below:
11.
12. To sharpen my image, I then applied a mild “Unsharp Mask”. This is located under the
“Filters” See Below: 13.
14.
Notes
15. If you are using flats for the one shot cameras then I would advise
you to colour synthesize
each one and use the “Saturation”
filter to take the entire colour out.
Preprocessing/Options I
have “resize” ticked this is because of the
MX5-C pixels so this may not apply to other
cameras.
If you have any queries I will be happy to help out.
